A Majority of Americans Now Play Videogames

Most of them on the PC

People still play games on the PC

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has published a new study related to the world of videogames. The main conclusion is the fact that a majority of adults in the United States are now playing videogames. The data comes from surveys conducted both in 2007 and in 2008 and the result is that 53% of all Americans over 18 are using at least one device to play videogames. This means that those who play games seem to outnumber those who do not for the first time since studies have been conducted including this question.

21% of those surveyed by Pew say that they play every day and out of those under the age of 18, approximately 97% play games. Surprisingly, 36% of those over the age of 65 claim that they play games every day and 28% do so a few times a week.

The preferred videogaming platform is, overall, the good old personal computer, followed by consoles. 38% of all adult gamers use the PC to play games, and 73% of all gamers use the platform. 28% and respectively 53% of the above categories use consoles. The only age frame to have consoles beat the PC is the 18-29 one. This means that the often repeated mantra of “PC gaming is dead” is pretty much untrue at this point.

Another interesting conclusion is the fact that parents are more interested in playing videogames than non-parents. The need to see and control what kids are playing seems to make them play more, on both the PC and on videogame consoles.

Only 9% of gamers say that they are interested in MMOs and that they actively play them. 21% of those under 18 are interested in massive multiplayer online games. Only 2% of those questioned like virtual worlds such as Second Life.